Summer Stock Pro Shot Presents! Legally Blonde: The Musical | Showgays: A Movie Musical Podcast

0:01 foreign [Applause] [Music] of course he will propose welcome back to oh my God you guys welcome back to Showcase oh my God you guys welcome back oh my God oh my God you guys um this week we are doing something new we're doing something never before seen never before never been before done ahead of its time

0:46 [Music] um [Laughter] um we are now presenting officially our Summer Stock Pro Shot presents series and by that I mean one once every year once a year once every year before June right because yes yesterday was Memorial day happy memories everyone respectfulness um so we are we are celebrating the summer with everybody's favorite Summer Stock uh and so we decided to watch one pro shot and you know what I thought about what's so brilliant about this and we

1:32 did not plan this it is a it is a musical that is based on a film it is the opposite of what we normally do yeah yeah which is topsy-turvy day full top secret and I was thinking I was like I can't actually I don't know if there are any other publicly available Pro shots that are the same now Adam before we continue can you define a pro shot please for the moms listening yes a pro shot happy Mother's Day is happy belated belated Mother's Day um uh Pro Shot is the professional shoot oh of a of a because it was shot it was filmed with a full camera crew they're actually like there in the room where it happens I

2:19 um and so that I mean that's that's so we were watching a film of a theatrical production so rather than putting it into a movie genre format we were watching people on a stage but well shots right because a real crew was able to do it PBS like actually used to do this and then Great Performances people people stopped funding Arts I'm Laura Linney yeah this this so I think that's Masterpiece class yeah did you have a like we had that we had the PBS tote I know yeah please donate to your local member station of course did you have a book actually wait I can reveal this because this will be Post Mother's Day that for Mother's Day it's kind of a combo gift for Rita and Steve that we're getting them a subscription to britbox this is the streaming service

3:06 it's all like yes wow did you have a beloved Pro Shot like growing up like oh does uh the Mary Martin Peter Pan is that a pro shot oh that's a great question because I could never tell if that is on a stage or a Sound Stage right because it's very it's very not supposed to be real that's very theatrical oh it's very theatrical but I can't I can never I used to watch that as a kid I would not say it's my favorite but I used to watch it as a kid uh and then yeah I cannot I don't I can't draw enough specifics to remember if it's like oh they're clearly in a proscenium or something you know what I mean yeah there definitely isn't this has like audience reaction in it and there's not none of that in the Peter

3:52 Pan and they definitely like change locations where it feels like you're in a fully different set we don't like see them do the set change or anything like that so it's somewhere in that area but maybe not quite a pro shot yeah yeah mine's probably the into the woods one the oh yeah not the Sunday maybe I've seen Clips but I've never seen the full Sunday famously Sunday's my favorite the internet it might be a controversial opinion but I watched the Sunday pro shop for a musical theater class and I could not pay attention to pay attention I feel like it's like such I mean Sondheim is known for being intellectual and like that one I feel like is top tier of like just I just want you to sit there and think and that's it and like yeah it might as well be called

4:37 ruminations on Art yes yeah yeah you really need you need like Dynamic performers in the room with you yeah it's definitely a musical that would lit there is no way you could make that a movie like you it would lose the entire thing immediately I mean great challenge for lin-manuel to do I think yeah no I don't need I don't need a little while treatment on Sunday I I think you maybe could but I would want you then to play with the medium of film and like really do something the way to take the boom like really I feel like made strong choices with the numbers yeah you know sure I agree somebody's not me you could try Adam not Adam but Adam do you have a pro shot no I did not um no I don't I don't Pro Shot I actually I can talk about I mean if you

5:24 want me to talk about now I can tell you that when this came out which was in high school Legally Blonde on MTV I actively did not watch it I made a choice to not watch it because I was such a theater snob where I was like we should not be filming theater theater is meant to be in there yeah I was that person I am not that person anymore I think oh my God Adam was like public if you can't afford the seats it [Laughter] um yeah but that was where I was at in 2008 so I'm so glad I'm recording on to right wing ideals yeah yeah [Music] Adam has the arduous task of summarizing I know this is my turn Lila Blonde the musical Adam is fully pulling in tonight

6:11 with with uh zero words zero words written so this is a real directing class uh end of the year project for me this morning director's notebook for sure hey I didn't open up the Google Doc until we were about to record so it could have been me in this situation I know I mean I will say I I knew it wasn't because I just did it for Mom yes I was like really this was perfect for the day where I had no time to do any research because guess what Mama the research she doesn't exist there is no information on the internet feeling great about that okay Adam your challenge to summarize legally blend the musical specifically the MTV Pro Shop version in one minute or less and your time starts now L Woods is dating Warren and they go

7:01 Foreigner sorry Warner they go to UCLA together and he um she thinks he's gonna propose at dinner but then he ends up breaking up with her because he's going to Harvard for law school and thinks that he needs to find a serious girl unlike L because she's very like feminine and pink and blonde and the whole thing and so then she decides to scam her way into law school at my scam I literally just mean get into law school yeah and go to Harvard uh where she her plan is to then fall back in love with uh Warder have him fall in love with her and then they actually do end up uh getting married but things do not go as planned for Miss L Woods um she's like laughed out of class because she's allegedly dumb and uh situations happen as they often do in musicals like dogs

7:48 um she ends up falling for one of the guys in the class whose name is Emmett uh and he helps her he helps he's her tutelage uh he tutors her in legal Affairs she ends up getting an internship is it an internship is it a what is it uh something an internship which is called an internship I think it's okay uh with the professor Callahan who owns a a big law firm in Boston um and she works on a case where a woman is accused of murder and ends up proving the innocence of the woman after uh having been quote unquote hit on which we'll get into by Professor Callahan which leads to a whole like personal like trauma thing and then she ends up with Emmett in the end and she wins and

8:34 it's great there's a b plot as well where she goes to the salon and meets palette a horrible character uh Al helps Paulette recover her dog from her ex-boyfriend and then later Paulette falls in love with the UPS guy uh much of the broad stroke if you've seen the movie the broad Strokes are the same but with some details change that I'm interested to talk through tutelage is something that you are under it's like a concept you're not a person's tutelage she is under his toothless toot that's what the kids are calling it nowadays and he's over her bootledge tooting interesting I see okay [Music] RJ Legally Blonde the musical

9:21 specifically relationship my relationship so I famously came into musical theater very late like sophomore year junior year high school so I completely dead are we yeah at what point are we gonna stop saying that you came into that was more than half of your life ago so you know pretty late in my life as I am currently 24. um hahaha they're just weirdly friends with a 24 year old yeah absolutely I think I see you guys as my like Old Sage this is weird because you're together oh yeah my big firm no on age gaps hell no no you have to your birthday is supposed to be within three days of each

10:07 other [Laughter] it's funny if you weren't at the same hospital it's off the table uh anyway so I found out about legally about the musical like maybe a year after the whole thing happened Broadway MTV search for an XL wood so like I came into it being like Oh my God all of this content happened about Legally Blonde which was and is one of my favorite movies of all time I mean I wore out this video this like we had the DVD and I played it all the time did I already tell this story on the last podcast that I had to tell a co-worker how to rewind to be adjusting you did oh God okay um could actually be worn out so yeah

10:52 yeah so I watched I watched a movie all the time I'm wearing pink yeah Adam's wearing pink today that's also my honor of L um and so because uh at the time this was like whatever but like junior high school I made it to Nationals in speech and debate in drama so when I was competing my go-to pump up Jam was I thought you were gonna say you did like a 10 minute attention of um no my pump up Jan was uh uh so much better so I would play so much better like right before every time I performed and just like you know made me feel great ready to slay

11:37 um cool so I had many songs not all the songs from the musical my favorites like in my like daily rotation Ireland I mean the bar stops so we could all sing along to Ireland so yeah Molly um I really did not know much about the musical I had heard um oh my God oh my God you got and I think that I had heard some of the I'm so much better as well um because those are kind of the two big numbers but uh like RJ a great movie A Beloved movie got into a musical theater really late in your life yeah in the musical theater so that's that's

12:23 only a few years ago at this point as a 13 year old now yeah um no I mean I love Legally Blonde uh obviously who wouldn't the funny thing about preparing for this is that in my mind I was like okay I think there's like a Sarah Zed um uh video about this that I can review and I was like thinking about things I could do and then I realized because I was like opening up my computer to watch it that I was thinking about mean girls that I was confusing this with Mean Girls because they're both musicals based on I don't know about like teen movies but like movies that came out in my teens that were like iconic referenced movies um they both have pink in them it's like a major color right so motif of pink um yeah so it was interesting to watch

13:10 Betty ferdan Write that the pink the pink feminine feminine with the feminine Motif the feminine motifs that's good that's good um excited to engage with the musical for the first time that's my back was Mean Girls what years were the original Migos was 2000 wait the movie the movie yeah it's later I think it's like oh four were they the same year legally blind as I want oh okay yeah so my here's here's my T unlegally blonde this movie is nearly perfect like truly a comedy for the ages it's so good yeah absolutely I

13:55 have never seen Legally Blonde the musical I've I've oh sorry I forgot my app I saw a local production of it in Orlando um and one of my friends was uh Chutney because she has like the craziest thick thickest curly hair uh and she was great she was a great Chutney so never seen it never wanted to see it I knew some of the music so I can't really have I can't really say that I didn't know much I did have that I did have the soundtrack or the Outcast album I should say but um it just wasn't something that terribly interested me which is a shame because my best friend Ari has been in this three different times wow and I have never seen her in this she's been in it one Collegiate and into professional I think yeah yeah and

14:43 um I don't know somehow I've always missed them so yeah she's played Brook once and then L twice yes wow um and after seeing it you know I think it's good we don't have to get into it yet but I I feel like I was like unfairly harsh on this especially because I said to RJ I think that this is like the last or one of the LA the beginning of the end of like modern musicals that like sounded like musicals before musicals felt like they had to start sounding like pop music hmm or like the new contemporary sound yeah that's my take sound like pure like a little not corny

15:30 but like that kind of sense of music do you feel that more contemporary musicals than this have had some of their musicalness shaved off in the way that the music sounds like like next to normal yes I feel like a lot of more especially as we come past because the musical comes out no seven um so as we had passed 07 we start to get because 07 famously the musical that wins best musical that year is uh Spring Awakening and I think spring Awakenings win kind of steered us into a direction of trying to make musical sound not like more pop music than traditional musical theater Fair I mean I will say I think these calls have always been influenced by pop music and whatever the pop music was of the day as we listen to Xanadu obviously we

16:15 hear a lot of the the 70s in it um so yeah I wonder if it's kind of in part that it's more poppy but also the kind of pop music that it's being influenced by you know what I mean because like uh Spring Awakening as an example is kind of almost folksy pop music um if you listen to like Duncan cheeks other music um so it's interesting I want to explore that more in future episodes we probably won't um uh I will add on my my very I love how my ideas are valued here yeah uh I will add on my antithetical to Adam's my friends and I loved this musical like we I was telling Adam we would do the Delta new thing to each other

17:00 so just a bunch of a bunch of gay kids no you were all straight remember yes a bunch of closeted gay kids doing Delta new new new to each other in the middle of like class breaks I mean I can't think of anything more alpha male than that absolutely Delta new sisters Jesus yeah so they're gonna they're gonna get a kick out of this episode welcome heterosexuals to the podcast yes welcome straight welcome straight allies um we are allies to the straight Community today absolutely [Laughter] it's important to say that because sometimes they think they forgot yeah

17:46 straight it gets better I know it's hard now but I know it's tough now but okay [Music] famously because we are basically doing our normal episodes in Reverse I'm gonna start with the movie that this is based on Legally Blonde directed by Robert lukatik he had directed one Australian short film before this he's an Australian director um and it was called titiana or something like that so were you stuttering or is it called I think it's hold on I have to look it up okay it's tits etiziana I can tell you that that is the name of the first word okay and lucatic

18:33 and it is called titiana bubarini she was my favorite character in nine by the way um yeah that's a little too subtle for Fellini I think yeah oh my God screenplay is by Karen McCullough Lutz and Kirsten Smith it's actually based on a book called Legally Blonde written by Amanda Brown wait can I ask a fruit please interrupt me Molly I'm just kidding what was your question oh before we move on to the screenwriters I just want to ask has Robert lukatik done anything

19:20 else that we would now yes he directed Monster-in-Law he directed The Katherine Heigl um Gerard Butler yes I love you no no that's that's nope the third one okay he also directed 21 which was like a gambling movie I guess it's the MIT blackjack team yeah directed The Wedding year from um from any Modern Family oh and also yes yeah yeah we talked about it before yeah yeah so he's directed you know some stuff win a date with Hamilton

20:07 we love it good job Bob um okay so Amanda Brown wrote Legally Blonde inspired by her experiences as a Stanford undergrad where she was done um I see why is it called Legally Blonde if it's about her undergrad years okay but here's the thing so this movie comes out in July of 2007. this book is Pub or I'm sorry 2001. no this book is published also in 2001. the book came out no no the film rights were already she had a manuscript that she was shopping around for a film and who who picked up that manuscript RJ read me

20:54 the second name in the production company line Mark Platt Productions Ben Platt's Father Mark Platt found that manuscript everywhere everywhere girl he's got the money yeah he found the manuscript he fell in love with it and he helped he helped he found the screenwriters to adapt it into a screenplay um and then also I guess advised her to help her finish finish the book that's insane yeah so they kind of came out in tandem basically as like a book in a movie at the same time that's smart I mean the girl went to Stanford so she knew well shopping around now well oh then here's what I I just wanna I just it was a different time in America okay I'm holding it for you so you can type oh thank you

21:40 um trying to be something thank you my God thank you so the reason God this movie is so good the thing I was gonna say I said to RJ yesterday is like I don't even know if in the Philippines do you remember Molly blonde joke culture it was just ever everything I mean yeah like the way there was also like you know just every comedian had blonde jokes like I mean like regular regular people had a stash of clown jokes at the ready I mean at least of all the jokes that we made in the early 2000s blonde jokes have are like the least offensive thing do you know what I mean yeah yeah um they're just like are the it's just like so specifically what what happened in culture that we were like we're reacting against blind people anyway

22:27 um this is Amanda Brown she said that when she first arrived at Stanford she discovered she had made a big mistake quote I was in my first week of Law School in 1993 and so I'm sorry it was Law School uh and I saw this flyer for the women of Stanford law so I was like I'll go and meet some nice girls whatever I went to the meeting and these were not women these were really angry people oh no the woman who was Leaf yup the woman who was leading it spent three years at Stanford trying to change the name semester to ovester I started laughing and I realized everyone in the room took it very seriously so I didn't make any friends there end quote to like spend tons of time with someone

23:13 who was like I'm genuinely gonna devote a lot of my time to trying to change the words of semester but I also wouldn't say that these weren't people weren't women they were very angry people that seems angry or woman as the two genders is not one that I've encountered before yeah yeah so that's interesting I mean I definitely want to talk about the way that the I don't remember her character's name is but okay lesbian Enid we gotta talk about Enid we got we got everybody's talking everybody's talking about Enid everybody's talking about eating it it's produced by Mark Platt and Rick kidney uh it stars Reese Witherspoon as

23:59 Elle Woods Luke Wilson as I meant Selma Blair is Vivian Matthew Davis that's what mourner Warner why do I want to say Warren uh Victor Garner's a weird name yeah yeah Victor Garber that's kind of beloved Victor Garner homosexual Garber as Callahan and Jennifer coolidge's Paulette iconic cinematography is by Anthony B Richmond it is edited by Anita Brandt Burgoyne the music is by Ralph Kent production companies are type A films Market Productions of MGM it was distributed by MGM whoa so we get to hear oh no we can't because we're watching the MTV I might have to play the MTV are you ready to play that

24:44 uh it was released on July 13th 2001 so you know what I like to bring up whenever we talk about 2001 this is what pre 9 11. uh it's running time is a gorgeous 96 Minutes one of the strongest aspects of this film yeah um its budget was 18 million and it made 141.8 million dollars every single and it spawned Legally Blonde Red White and blonde absolutely it's spawned Regina Regina King vehicle Regina King vehicle also Miss Congeniality 2 which also Stars Regina King which is very funny um it's Bond a direct to videos legally blondes legally blondes I did not watch that one and it spawned this musical and

25:30 apparently Mindy Kaling is writing a Legally Blonde three which is in the works heard of this does it have a date set so okay um obviously she's not writing currently I don't know she can't she can't be a scam oh okay well he's out here advocating to lose you keep writing Mindy get to work get to work yeah I'm actually also anti-capitalist I'm just Pro scab it's like a really Niche political position so um there is not much I mean there's a ton of background info on this film but I actually find it very relevant to what

26:16 we needed to talk about today other than you know the costumes are iconic her pink was her signature color that was decided very early out of the process and throughout the course of the production they made a very concerted effort and Reese has talked about this a lot that it is never making fun of L yes L is yeah L is very innocent um and people I think there are characters that find her dumb but the movie itself does not laugh at L yeah um which is very cool yeah it's very like it kind of reminds me a little bit of Leslie Knope in that like her earnestness and like uh just genuine self can be like misconstrued I think like also Leslie knows character you know kind of develops as the show developed too but

27:01 like is that sense of like people are are making fun of someone because they're just so Earnest about it but she never really gave off the feeling that like she was like too stupid for Harvard that was never like the case I just felt like she was also very yeah now it's very Ted lasso as well that's like kind of the core of that character yes um I will read you a list of women who are all considered for this role Charlize Theron Gwyneth Paltrow Alicia Silverstone Catherine Heigl Christina Applegate Mila Jovovich and Jennifer Love Hewitt were all considered I think Rhys was the perfect absolutely well you funny you should say that because this film which I do not remember this because I was not I was not attuned to this part of culture at the time this

27:46 film was nominated for the Golden Globe for best comedy and she was nominated for best actress in WoW the one thing I like about the not the only thing but like a specific thing I really like about the Golden Globes is that they differentiate the two categories of drama and comedy yeah because the the Oscars never will they'll a comedy winner will never happen ever again Marissa Tomei was the last one so I hope you all enjoyed that in 1992 because it's never happening again yeah um so yeah this I mean this movie is an iconic and there's something about this movie too where so many movies that I feel like are beloved by the general public later so many movies I feel like have this thing where it was like at the time no one

28:33 really liked it but like since then it's like gained this like status no this movie was pretty beloved like from the get-go I mean obviously it's on like uh a sequel two years later but um in my head I think I had been like maybe I can conflating the fact that like the musical doesn't do super well with the idea that like the movie also didn't do super well at first but it's not true we had we had a discussion one time on this pod we were like maybe you can only have like financial success popularity at the time or a long lasting Legacy and you can't have all three and then I told my mom that and she was like here's like 12 examples that prove you wrong immediately off the top of my head yeah so this is one of those that hits all three yeah it's true um yeah that's pretty much everything I

29:19 want to say about the movie oh do you want to know what open the other movies in the theaters the week that this opened in 2001 scary movie two was number five which is I think the best of the scary movies actually uh Final Fantasy the spirits within I did not know that RJ's there's a final fan there was a final fantasy movie but it was like kind of like the original the first Avatar movie where it was like an original thing that didn't really I haven't tried The Last Airbender yes it's a video game franchise um three was cats and dogs I remember this movie I don't remember that at all it's a live action so and their mouths move oh one of those we just do a lot of those in the 90s yes

30:04 we really had perfected giving peanut butter to dogs we've really had done that at the time two was the score another film I have no recollection of whatsoever and number one is legally blocked well they picked a great weekend to open yeah the week after it this week after July 4th so they were like going big and weren't getting everybody in the in the in the theaters [Music] um the music is by Nell Benjamin and Lawrence O'Keefe um Musical lyrics I'm sorry are both of them uh the book is by Heather Hawk or hatch don't know how she pronounces it Miss Heather it's based on like Heather hatch sounds familiar but I don't know that it's for sure the same person so it's AJ CH so my only I don't know who knows she

30:50 does but she's not here to answer premiered um in San Francisco for its tryout on January 23 2007 and then opened on Broadway that same year it ended up having a West End production in 2010 um it did end up closing in late 2008 so not a very long run over the course of its lifespan um and then it does not I'll tell you what the Tony's it was nominated for it was nominated for best book best original score best performance by an actress in a lead role for Laura Bell Bundy as L best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical for Christian borl as Emmett best performance by an actor actress and a featured older musical for orfe who plays Paulette pescorio and best costume design but it did not win any of them at

31:37 the oliviers in 2010 it does win best musical that's all I had that's it let's talk about the musical talk about the musical TV RJ what are your thoughts on Legally Blonde musical um now that you've seen recently yes because you had seen it so I had I had seen the MTV Pro Shot like I think sometime later in high school um like I said my friends were obsessed with it uh and then style saw local production in Florida and then seeing it now um I it was really it was really fascinating to watch it again and didn't realize how

32:24 much they really turned up the like cuckoo comedy physical comedy really broad comedy with like the characters like it felt like characters were like amped up as cartoons like Cartoon versions of themselves which I just couldn't help but think like in the movie obviously it's a movie it's a different media but like L the Delta new sorority sisters Paulette there was a little bit more subtlety and like more Laden in and like grounded of how like different they were from each other but here whether it's for the stage whether it's because they were filming it for MTV so they knew it was going to be like broadcasted on on cable TV they felt like they were like at 125 like they were at a 200 like

33:10 like energy wise and also just like characterizations where like let's go for like circus levels which I mean I appreciate I always like when when actors like go all the way but it was just like it took me a while to kind of like oh okay I have to like think about it as like they are performing on stage so they're performing to the back of the house so all of these like jokes are like so big and Broad but I also couldn't you know I kept thinking like was this like a mid-2000s I didn't really like see musicals until I was like in college where I could like I was I had access to like go to New York and see shows so like maybe big comedies at the time were like this big and Broad I knew like Xanadu was like the next year and I knew that was very big and Broad so like I don't know but it took me a while to

33:57 get used to it I think uh and I think it it was a good decision to like lean in on the comedy because I think that's why people come to they come for like the fish out of water type of Comedy that they get from l in like a stuffy hoity toity Harvard Law environment I'm looking up the 2007 Tony Awards to see if there's any other musicals from the same year that I could be like oh this is another example of that like big broad comedy I just remember Spring Awakening I don't remember the other ones um I think the next year I mean that's very specific to a style of Comedy yeah the Mel Brooks the Mel

34:42 Brook style um it's funny because thinking about the movie I don't the movie is a broad comedy but it is not slapstick and there are slapstick elements that have been Incorporated in although that's not true because she does Paulette does hit his nose when she does the bend and snap that's part of the film so there is a slapstick element but it is really truly only character driven because it's like she looks uncomfortable and it's Jennifer Coolidge like she will be yeah physical 2007 it was like Spring Awakening it it was not that Vibe 2006 was also pretty

35:27 it was like Drowsy Chaperone kind of stuff um it doesn't sorry but 2005 the winners Monty Python Spam a lot so maybe that would be the best yeah we're still like in that yeah yeah and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels I don't know do your Scoundrels as well but I think they're pretty similar dirty rotten is pretty big and Broad too okay from what I remember from the eclipse that I've seen yeah exactly exactly yeah I had a great time watching this I don't think it's art but like not everything needs to be um I had fun I think it moves like crazy I think act two is unfortunately pretty uneven yeah really where it falls apart

36:12 for me um but act one is really solid and Laura Bell Bundy is I mean if you if the whole if not I mean that's obviously not the whole thing but if like a huge part of why Legally Blonde the film works is because of Reese Witherspoon's performance which is yeah what everybody thinks all the critics talk about her performance it's like The Shining part of that film even for people who are like it's a little like tired these tropes whatever like they still are like she's so good in it yeah Laura Bell bunny is so good as L and I think I think sometimes actresses who I think this the stealthy part of L Woods the character in the musical is that this is not a traditional main romantic lead character she is a

37:00 character actress kid like this is a character actress performance yeah and it's so cool that that is the like secret the secret antidote of this like whole thing is that she has to be just as big and Broad as everybody else otherwise like it doesn't work there's no way for it to work if she if she feels like she's like undercutting the jokes or like you know what I mean like it has to it has to be as ridiculous as everybody else but we also are not again like I think the musical also does a pretty good job I don't think as good as the film but I do think the musical does a very good job of being like we're not laughing at Elle I think yeah the musical a little bit doesn't hold up as well in terms of like I think the movie feels very women

37:46 supporting women which is really cool yeah and there's actually one part we're going to talk around this piece because I think it's I I don't want to talk about it chronologically um the biggest change for me from the movie that really bothers me is the the ending of this movie is perfect the fact that it ends with her valedictorian speech and it's just her and the class and they throw their caps up and it's a freeze frame and whatever that is it's great it's the perfect ending because apparently when I was reading in the background of info they had actually filmed a different version where they ended on the steps of the courthouse after the trial she shares a kiss with Emmett and that's the end of the movie and audiences test

38:32 audience was like that doesn't that's not the end of the movie because it's not a romantic comedy the film is not about the romance of her and Emmett and so they had to do this whole thing they rewrote it whatever they had to actually go back and find they had to go film Rhys while she was in England filming The Importance of Being Earnest where she was playing Cecily as well it's um it's not it's a movie it's not a pro shot it's no it's a movie it's a movie who is uh uh the handbag Lady it's my Nemesis yes okay I couldn't remember if it was her John Paul right okay Rupert Grant is in

39:17 it and calling first I don't remember the name of the woman who plays the not ready for this has been part but uh it's great not Rupert not oh sorry that's the Harry Potter man uh um she's very good in it anyway they had to go back and film they gave her a wig that's why her hair looks a little weird that's why it's like weird yeah um but they shot it in in the UK oh so they flew everyone over they flew everything over just for that ending because it had they had to fix it and this musical just [ __ ] that whole ending and it ends with them sharing a kiss and I understand that I do think I think that Laura Bell and I think specifically I think Laura Bell and

40:03 Christian Boral specifically have chemistry more chemistry than I think that like recent I think recent Luke have chemistry but it's it's so clearly not to the point of that film yeah it's just like a happenstance that like also was like a bonus of like being true to yourself and like found someone who's who appreciates me for me yes appreciate that yeah um whereas the musical is like No it should end with them I have a whole list in my head that I didn't bother to open up the Google Doc and write down of like there are changes that I'm like love this idea for a musical there are changes that I'm neutral about and they're changes that I don't like oh I feel that the focus so

40:52 so what I was gonna say is it's not just the ending it's that more of the time is spent on developing her relationship with Emmett throughout the whole plot yeah and so that's one of the ones I'm not even gonna say neutral I am ambivalent about because I enjoyed the way that they um sort of portrayed that really I enjoyed the time that we spent with them I agree that the two of them have such great chemistry oh my God Laura Bell Bundy I totally agree like not for so long as somebody grabbed me that hard through a screen and made me want to pay attention for that right so I I liked watching their relationship develop the scene where they kind of have their little I'm Falling In Love song is very sweet but I agree both that it undercuts some of the focus on her discovering her own capabilities in law school and the other

41:39 thing I feel like it cuts is some of the L being a really kind person because that's something else I love about the original movie is like the plotline about the guy who's kind of nerdy and has always excluded and she like pretends that he like loved her and left her whatever to like get these girls to be like oh my God I can't believe that this guy like slept with someone yeah yeah and so I really love that in the movie more time is spent with the study group and her platonic relationships and that you get to see because you assume especially at the time I feel like the Assumption was oh blonde girl from Beverly Hills she's going to be like super stuck up and vapid and mean yeah and that she is actually very kind I feel like all of all of her relationships in law school were just through Emmett and I wish that we had seen more of the whole group I agree

42:26 yeah because you got little nuggets from Enid I mean they were through a guise of a of lesbian jokes but like she they were she was like on else side for a lot of things and and I think the other characters could have done that too I actually I feel like the musical punches down at a lot of the other people in her group with her in a way that the movie really doesn't yeah um we don't really have the equivalent yeah we don't really have the equivalent of the just like really socially awkward guy um we have the character the guy that's like from another country and I in 2023 watching this for the first time was like oh the bit is gonna be that he's like pretending like well I'm a ruler in my country and I'm coming back here but and then he's going to be like no I'm just kidding you dumb white people like of course that's not true I grew up in

43:12 Connecticut or something right like I was waiting for that bit so that's just a joke is that he like actually is a dictator's son yeah he plays the gay European in act two so we're gonna have to have a whole we gotta do Enid and then gay or european It's gotta be it's show guys we gotta get snow guys we gotta um so and then yeah and in it yeah I don't want to like go all into it but just eat it I feel like it's very clearly coded as a lesbian in the movie but like if that's not really a joke like she just is a lesbian yeah right and maybe maybe there's even a joke where like Elvis is that again because it's like the naive the day but not because she would have a problem with it yeah but the joke is very like how embarrassing for Enid that you lost She's a Lesbian in law school girl yeah

43:58 the only the only lesbian joke I like in this musical is the one where he says can we see that again and then she says yeah I want to see that too or something like that when she does dependency yeah it would be funny in the context of if it didn't feel like they were punching down at her for being gay the whole time yeah otherwise I could totally get down with that joke yeah it would have been a great joke if like because the whole thing is that this is a foolproof way for straight for straight men and that like if it was like a you know if we haven't been yeah punching down on her the entire time it would have been such a nice surprise and Delight to Enid but I did also like her joke of like pressing play on Brook Windham too like that was yeah fun I'm just gonna get into it not only is not only is the joke that she is a lesbian but it's that she gets she

44:44 even gets offended when somebody calls her a lesbian so she's like a closeted lesbian who finds it offensive the notion that yeah it's very I don't know early 2000. we should have watched we should have watched yeah I know I can't remember if Enid is like a Les I remember that Enid is a lesbian but I don't remember if like she's aware she's or yeah that also is like a throw away not a throwaway joke but there's something where she alludes to it but it's just like there's definitely no way they spend as much time on Enid as this musical does yeah exactly but it's the same thing of like Peace Corps you know like women's studies background like that's all I think oh Vester

45:29 an angry person an angry person not a woman not a woman famously women there's two genders women and angry people angry people um we'll commit to that um I want to say a couple things that I do like though because we're starting off with things that we don't like about the changes I love the idea of using the Greek sisters to keep coming back RJ and I look the three of us should play the three great Greek horse there's come on Molly you have to be the Jewish one I'm obviously the idiot and RJ because he's the POC is Pilar since I'm Sandeep I mean I'm not Jewish but okay yeah yeah

46:17 will you pack everything for sure um I will say when we were what yeah the great course is amazing I looked at Adam and I was like Annalee Ashford is gonna probably win a Tony this year and it's great because you can like see here I'm like she's always had the goods she's so good in this uh while we're talking about great performances from Side characters Kate Weatherhead I think is her last name please she she curls girl what's her name again chutney Chutney she must Chutney and as well as the nerdy sorority sister who helps L to study for the alpha study yes I love her because she was in ordinary days which is one of my favorite deep

47:04 cut small cast contemporary musicals that um Julian introduced me to in college and uh she plays this character who's like extremely anxious and goes to grad school and so Julian was like you need to listen to this because this character is you um and uh you if you are familiar with it it's probably via there was a semi-viral in the Broadway uh internet video of fontino Santana and the woman that he maybe is still currently dating I don't know singing the song about the wines what did I say fontino Santana no no this is yes sorry but it was at the time he was

47:49 playing the prince on Broadway and then this woman was like Laura osnosis um understudy that they were also dating and so they like did a 54 Below uh rendition of this musical number which is about a couple having a fight and people like loved it so um that's that's why if you've ever heard of ordinary days it might be because of that um anyway she does a great job thank you my sister my sister um yeah I think she's great let's let's truly listen to a little bit of oh my God you guys since it does it introduces us to the report s [Music]

48:57 yeah we're experts on Greek core eye now in the pantheon of opening numbers in musicals this is this isn't this is one of them act one the first half of act one moves so fast it's incredible every musical should move this fast no there we were 10 minutes in and we had really heard six songs and gotten like halfway through the film I was like I mean what board do you want what people so opener perfect first action amazing second act what happened and it is the curse of contemporary musicals that I have complained about many a times where we have really strong openers and non-existent or forgettable finales like

49:43 why can't we put any energy it's it's like they asked them to write it in order and said you can't go back and change anything after you've and they put all their energy into the opening numbers and they like can't come up with anything else yep yeah act two I really think suffers from I think they introduce Brooke too early so they introduced Brooke and they they go to the jail and talk to Brooke and then they have to spend a song dressing Emmett in a suit and then they have to go do bend and snap and then they have to like the end which is a very long dance sequence [Music] um and then and then we go back to the trial and I understand that doesn't sound that long but I feel like the way

50:30 the end of act one is set up where it's like and now we're gonna go past a cast uh assign the like internship or whatever the cast list dropped classless jobs for Callahan's um understudies yeah yeah and then we go like into act two and like meet the person who has the trial that like wraps the show up and then we take a detour right after that I was like oh I wish we had just figured out a better way to end it because it it feels like we hit two speed bumps right in a row and I was like well okay so I agree with that analysis of pacing I think there are two other issues with act two one is Ben and snap's song is entirely forgettable it's like a huge iconic scene in the movie and they put it on something good to go

51:15 with it this is not gonna be profound what I'm about to say but somehow every song in this is either one of the greatest songs ever written or it's like I will never remember another note I could it would end right now and I'd be like I don't know what that melody was well I feel like they panicked on bed and snap and they just like couldn't come up with anything because they knew that people were gonna be waiting for it and then they just totally biffed it and it's and then late in the show it's so late in the show it's so late because they had to make time for uh or Faye to want to go to Ireland apparently oh Adam has walked out of the podcast I well the country Ireland the other problem is that the whole

52:02 finale is them literally singing the words Legally Blonde and they make a joke earlier in the show and you could hear the audience getting it that was like kind of a pun that like got you to Legally Blonde and I was like oh okay that's the one life mention of the title and we're done with it now or whatever and then they start singing it in the nail salon and I was like oh okay I guess we're doing this again and then I was like oh we're committing to this for the next 25 minutes I feel like that's the only song we're gonna sing anymore is them just saying like you will be Legally Blonde you could come up with because it's first it's like it's sad legally blunt no the first line is Callahan calls her Legally Blonde when he leaves them at the jail you're nothing but a second rate trying hard Legally Blonde ass you will never equate I thought it was the line at least you said ass and then I

52:47 was like oh God uh and then she's like you're right I am just Legally Blonde and then Vivian is like yes girls are legally they're using the term like it's a thing that exists outside of the pun of this movie title like we all went around 2001 calling each other legally blondes like just just have that have them done blind that's the that's the point of it right yeah uh you know I don't know maybe the title is even offensive in retrospect that obviously it's a but I'm legally blind but like I just don't understand I just got that Adam just got it I'm so sorry oh wow hi maybe wow

53:34 wow and now okay so for listeners yeah if listeners are had did not put that together we've given them I think enough processing time there um so it's so ridiculous that people keep using this as if it were a phrase that people would have used in conversation ever yeah I don't mind it when she has her sad like Legally Blonde song and I actually don't even mind it when Vivian comes in and says like you're Legally Blonde it's the fact that it's then the finale that I'm like yeah they're just there are so many there's so many good songs it tells me that they don't know what the musical is supposed to be about right because if and then the point is legally blondes then you did not

54:21 understand what you were trying to say you didn't read the syllabus baby yeah if if one of my students turned into for me a worksheet on this musical and they were like this he is Legally Blonde I would be like you need to try harder you need to think more about the text because that's obviously not the theme yeah that's not even the sub that's maybe that's nowhere oh boy well yeah I almost preferred the happier version of I think the rallying cry version of Legally Blonde is the strongest for me that I do wish that yeah if you were going to use it in a negative might as well say dumb blonde I yes I don't mind that because it's when she comes out with her pink yes her like dress suit I never wear that I'd wear this yeah yeah

55:06 like that's fun because that is the iconic L Woods from that is the what that's what you want to see right so first you're gonna reference but then like don't end the show with that yeah over and over again they should have sunk square root if possible from um that's what it is what's it called jingle jingle jingle jingle jangle yeah yeah yeah I want to say tick Tick boom but I knew that's wrong yeah yeah that's where that song should live yeah should we play Legally Blonde is that what you want to do which one do you want me to play do you want sad do you want Happy do you want bathroom because there is a bathroom let's pay the the whatever the last version is so that listeners will understand how it serves as a finale

56:00 [Music] oh yeah my favorite my favorite use of Legally Blonde is Brooke's version of it when she says mystery you're fired guess who I hired to represent me you gotta be legally blah great look I mean they're working hard up there but they are what the [ __ ] happened with the character of Paulette what happened I mean we drove off a cliff with this character yeah I feel like orfei was like I need another number

56:48 and they were like Well it can't connect to your character Arc because you can't think of a way to do that so yeah there are many so that could be a possibility I also think that they were like well we can't we have to do our own thing on Paulette we can't just write a Jennifer Coolidge well okay look I appreciate because she's not doing a Jennifer Coolidge impersonation I'm not appreciate that I wouldn't want to watch a string of character actresses try to do Jennifer Coolidge uh Impressions right right that's what I go see drag for yeah yeah yeah yeah um no I'm only interested in Jake's monsoon's uh version of General absolutely yes um I just think that they could have

57:34 given her a number about I don't know finding yourself worth in relationships instead of about wanting to move to Ireland I don't understand why they added that it felt it felt like one of two ways one that they were trying to shoehorn an Irish dance somehow in the musical it makes no sense it makes no sense two maybe they got money from the country of Ireland to promote maybe they get yeah like Irish tourism board the other thing that I was thinking which made sense in my head but it just did not come out in execution was they were like yeah if we're making Paulette like a woman from Boston like down to earth south of the earth Boston woman for L to meet and like kind of like keep her grounded then it's like

58:19 let's go hardcore Irish Catholic let's go Ireland but it's not even she's not she's not Irish she does not have a Boston accent she's not like from a you know it doesn't read at least and it's like it's not even like I've always yearned to go to Ireland for my family it's like I found a Celtic moon no it just it it's just you don't there's no need to even give it this much conversation it's not good I just I hate to say it because it's it's just such a shame because she is such a standout in the film and unfortunately I think because this is I think the real reason that Paula becomes an issue as a character is when you amp up The Comedy that L has to do you essentially take L from a one to a two but then Paulette is also a two so now

59:06 you have like two x's and you either need to find a very specific two different styles of Comedy which is like what happened in what what did we just say right babe they either have to do that where you have like literally two separate comedy types and they still can like gel together or you just have to like throw Paulette out the window and give her a song about Ireland and be like well at least she gets to sing and somehow get a nomination for this how I mean that's got to just be politics right I appreciate what RJ's saying that they maybe that there was something about Boston and Irish people that like was in the thought process that didn't get onto the page like in any way at all and I also think that there like could be a real comedy in making her like hardcore Catholic but

59:52 like uh maybe like very um selective in her Catholicism the joke could be that she's like super conservative about some things but like very very liberal about others um but it's just this like it's a yearning song I guess is how it would characterize it right yeah but like she is yearning for something which is her dog back so like you could give her a song about wanting her dog back about wanting to feel valued because she ends up because I thought when we got to this island song I was like oh so maybe like nothing about Paulette is gonna be the same like maybe they're just like this is a different character now this is a different Arc she's gonna be on and then the UPS guy shows up and I was like oh so it is

1:00:37 still listening to like hook it up with a hot new man so what how did that contribute it's a bad choice it's a bad choice it's such a bad choice and I I don't I I don't I really I feel I I never feel good talking about actors performances there's something about it being like a stage actor that like makes me feel even worse to be like I think this is bad I think this performance isn't good I think she is supposed to be doing a Boston accent but you cannot really tell there's like a couple words here and there but there are too many R sounds being made for me to know that it is go it is a Boston accent that's supposed to be what's happening I just I don't I just I don't like it I don't they

1:01:24 become I think the the writing is bad I think they become like close too quickly she like starts doing her nails and then immediately sings a song about Ireland and I just like I don't there's no there's no setup to their friendship really the thing in the movie that first scene at the nail salon is such a Elle discovering little things about Paulette that like endear that like makes it natural but here it's like way too hot like Paulette is because they have to spend so much time developing her and Emmett that they like are like well let's get in the shaft and I just I don't think that was like a smart decision to be quite honest yeah especially with the whole show I don't think I don't think Legally Blonde the film is about her and Paula's fun

1:02:11 friendship right but it goes it is in service of the point of the musical which is like it's like a women not it's not like a women's empowerment movie but like it is like I think it's in a lot of ways yeah yeah I just yeah I just I would say that Alan Paulette's relationship is more important to the movie than Emmett and Mal's relationship in the movie for sure absolutely for sure [Music] and we dance without moving in a bar one sang that this guy Dewey and he bought me like 14 beers

1:02:58 and he told me that he was from Ireland him 10 years if I squinted he looked like my sailor through my boozy delusional fog somebody jumped me for some flood named Kayla took my trailer and took my dog [Music] you're allowed to shoot him in the knees I think if we're talking also about changes to out the other thing that I

1:03:45 want to talk about is that I feel like they spend too much time showing her struggling and other people more specifically other people having to coach her through succeeding yeah in the movie she gets the idea and she's like immediately sitting down with LSAT books I like went back and watched this clip because I was like I don't feel like that's how the LSAT thing went she just was like I'm gonna do it I have a good GPA I can learn how to take this test and I she like she knows that she can she doesn't apply herself until this party scene and she gets dissed and she realizes that like she really yes needs to try but the the thing that holds her back is always like she doesn't understand the Norms of like they assigned reading for the first day right that's not because he's not smart it's just like she didn't know she didn't

1:04:30 know how law school was going to work yeah and um and I don't like having a whole thing where like one of the story sisters is like constantly having to say like no you can't go to this party and you gotta study and blah blah like I'll can do that all on her own in the movie and then when they're spending too much time with Emmett it's like also him coaching teaching her yeah Halloween or she's got to open the book blah blah blah and it like entirely comes from her in the movie and I really don't like that I feel like they took away a lot of her intelligence and her drive yes she took away a lot of her drive for the musical like the iconic scene of her saying all masturbatory emissions could be uh turned for reckless abandonment yeah it just comes so effortless in the movie like it's just like this just

1:05:16 makes sense like you know like this is just I'm following the the logic trainer The Logical train of thought but here I mean obviously they make it a big moment or whatever but it's like it's because Emmett was there training her what Mal and prohibitors means like um I wish it was a I wish it was more of a throwaway like almost like she was like writing and talking at the same time like writing in her notebook and then looks up and everyone's like it's like oh shocked yes something like that because it's too it's too cute like it's a little too forced um I hate that he like comes in her dorm or wherever she's apartment and starts like he makes her like throw her personal items away there's something about it that is the one that I was like that's

1:06:03 not the point of the film the point is that she's doing both she's literally able to do both and the time that it does not work for her is when she flips too hard to be like I'm so serious that is the point of the movie that's that movie is very much the point of the movie she can do it all and and that you don't have to give up parts of yourself there's like a whole sequence where she's applying herself and she's like she goes I mean I iconic she goes buys the computer in the bunny suit amazing and then she's like studying on the elliptical and at the nail salon and she's like it's it's like absolutely about you can have feminine interest and also be smart and work hard you don't have to pick between them and so him being like well you can't use your vanity for makeup you have to use it for your law books garbage garbage

1:06:51 bad it's so weird it's so it's so not people who are engaging with what the text actually like says of the film like it's so clear the film is so clearly that yeah it like it's not it's not that it like became a like a brand of feminism like people years later were like do you know what fabulous is really about it's Legally Blonde it's about the fact that you don't have to stop being feminine in order to be successful right yeah you don't I mean because that obviously you don't have to become an angry person yes you can still be you can still be a woman and and be a woman so now you can be a woman and be a woman yeah I think too like that's why I never really connected with chip on my shoulder I mean yeah I

1:07:37 was not connecting to any male songs well sure I will say serious I did connect with because it I think like just the comedy series is hilarious it's right serious such a good comedy yeah yeah oh it's so good but chip over shoulder feels so weird because at times you're like L does have a chip on her shoulder like it's Warner it's her drive to be here him being like you don't need you don't care about being here is like false that's not true she's here marching bands that she brought it to the admissions office oh your problem is you're not trying hard enough what are you talking about right she brought it in time that's a full flight that's a full JetBlue flight of people yeah exactly oh yeah did they get

1:08:25 promotion did they get like um I have no idea the whole thing about the Red Bulls I was like somebody is paying for these months I have a feeling yeah there was something there because I mean it's like that kind of product placement where it's like just put a thumb there and we'll give you a check but in a musical yeah hey baby but the MTV I'm wondering if it was put in there for the MTV I don't know about Red Bull I don't know about Red Bull I'm not sure about Red Bull um but anyway yeah like chip on my shoulder like and then the song could play a little bit play a little bit play me a little bit a little bit of chip on my shoulder guess you got a chip on her shoulder maybe some wise man told her with a Chance we've been given we gotta be driven as hell she was something to see

1:09:13 her I'm just happy [Music] I'm so close guess you never can tell Little Miss Woods the way chip on my shoulder ends melodically doesn't make sense to me like the like swell into like little

1:09:59 Miss Woods like I feel like that was like melodically not what we've been hearing this entire time and all of a sudden That's How It Ends and I always feel so it bugs me yeah it's very strange yeah but I do love the Greek chorus in this number Delta new and then the calendars that's always cute oh when she was December and they sang Gloria and Chelsea's day oh and then she held a menorah I screamed that's incredible that's so good there is that I will say I I so often on this podcast I am complaining about Direction I have not a single comment about the directions it's clear direct clear Direction the calendar stuff is bullying the Folly's number in Greece two it's it's just different manifestations we don't we

1:10:45 don't have a champagne glass uh January situation but the overall Vibe is very sad yeah the best the best thing that happened the best piece of like stage magic that happens in this is the girl who is like running to go catch up with the rest of the girls and she has on the like robe and her hairs in a towel in the face and the face mask and she holds on to the pole to drop down and another actress comes down the rest of the poll like fully dressed it is a perfect piece of stage magic if I was in the audience I would have screamed on saying yeah I honestly all of all of the sororities stuff works so well the only thing I don't really like is positive positive because I think It suffers in that like it kind of interrupts the momentum because imagine

1:11:31 if we didn't have this and we had a longer sequence with Paulette of her like getting to know her yeah well I'm positive I think really undercuts what I was talking about before about L fundamentally being a very kind character and yes it is a number where they are suggesting ways to undercut and be cruel and she's saying no I'm not gonna do that but I you're supposed to understand it's happening in her head

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